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Andrew Bold
Known Participant
August 30, 2023
Question

Automating catalog photography. Share your experience

  • August 30, 2023
  • 2 replies
  • 1684 views

Hi! One of the things I do is processing catalog photos for clothing (sometimes accessories) websites
I'm always on the lookout for maximizing optimization and automating the process.
Over time I've collected some action and scripts to work with, but I'm curious how my colleagues have optimized their process. And how I can become better at it.

My spicifica:
One item includes about 5 photos. It is 4 photos of clothes on the model on different backgrounds + the most important "Transparent mannequin or Neck Joint" (it must be perfect, so at least some automation for this I can not think of, everything is done manually).

So, please share your experience if you work in a similar field. And what processes you managed to speed up.

Interested in everything, even trivial methods. From frequencies to super complex narrowly focused scripts.
Even if you describe some of your tricks in words, that would be great too.

I'm sure many people will find it very useful.

What I use from automation (or not so much):
1. automatic horizon alignment
2. Cropping the frame with the right amount of pixels on the top and bottom of the model
3. Removal of skin redness
4. Removing dust, debris
5. Saving the file to the right place, with the right name and size

2 replies

Stephen Marsh
Community Expert
Community Expert
August 31, 2023

You might wish to create an archive of the following as it's going down soon:

 

https://mindfulretouch.com

 

Andrew Bold
Known Participant
August 31, 2023

That's really cool! Thank you so much!

c.pfaffenbichler
Community Expert
Community Expert
August 30, 2023

What are your output needs (transparent backgrounds, tagged RGB or separated files, …)?

How do you manage the layered psd/psb-files and the output-files? 

How are the images processed afterwards – do you hand off flattened or merged files, do you place/update them yourself in Indesign (or whatever) to create the print-pdfs, …? 

Andrew Bold
Known Participant
August 30, 2023

I can describe roughly what my process looks like)

 

1. I receive photos in separate folders in raw format.

2. I load everything into lightroom, apply the preset, save the reduced jpg to the original folders + delete the originals.
3. I open in Total Commander all attached pictures from all supply folders.
4. Sort by name. I select, for example, all frames #2 (because they have a floor).
5. I load all these frames into Photoshop and run the script.
5.1 The script automatically aligns the horizon on all photos.
5.2. Crop the picture to the required size with the required indents from the girl's head/legs to the edge of the frame.
5.3 If transparent areas appear in the corners of the picture after rotation, the script automatically fills them.
6. Saves the file to the original folder, with the original name in jpg format, and makes the file size to 1 mb.

In brief, this is the algorithm of work. (I omitted some steps, where I manually view intermediate variants and if necessary make small manual manipulations with retouching).

But depending on the number of the picture this algorithm is different. I use slightly different settings for each type of photo.

In the end, after all the pictures remain pictures number 1 (Transparent mannequin or Neck Joint), which I already completely manually processed with a pen, and various other methods.

 

Final view of the finished folder


In general, it's like this. But you need to understand that depending on the type of clothing, pictures of the same numbers will be different.
For example, the pictures of sweater number 3 and 4 will be different from the picture of pants number 3 and 4. Since the pictures of sweater will be made without a floor and have its cropping on the upper part of the torso.
And the pictures of pants number 3 and 4 will be taken with floor. And they too will have the horizon alignment script applied to them and the cropping on the bottom.
That's why I select the necessary files manually in Total Commander, and can't automate everything by file name)

I hope you understand me at least a little bit, as I don't speak English well and I use a translator).


So I'm interested in other people's methods, their tricks, to learn something new that can be useful in this type of work).

I create topics when I come up with this or that method that can be useful.
But I'm sure a lot of ideas have already been implemented that I wouldn't have thought of)

c.pfaffenbichler
Community Expert
Community Expert
August 30, 2023
quote

2. I load everything into lightroom, apply the preset, save the reduced jpg to the original folders + delete the originals.

That seems like a mistake to me; jpg is for the very final output – for print products that would be the pdf-export itself. 

And you even mention saving as a jpg a second time – you appear to be adding artefacts on artefacts. 

My recommendation would be to save the layered image at full resolution. 

If you make the (commendable) effort to sharpen at the final output-size you can just wrap the fullres, layered image in a Smart Object and apply the sharpening to that. 

 

What do you ultimately hand off? 

Is this usually for print or web-use?